Testify

Interview by Tony Lestat

You have a new album out called "MMMMYAOOOO" - where did this odd title come
from?

"MMMMYAOOOO" does not seem to be the least interesting title, and
if it's only because everyone asks us about this strange word. It's a
quotation from a fantasy book of Terry Pruchard and means something like a
sarcasm of astonishment and light enthusiasm; but free to interpret it any
way you want!

I really like your other project THE FAIR SEX, but TESTIFY
seems to be heading in a more metal direction than the other band's
industrial sound. Is this intentional?

Of course I enjoy hearing you are a fan of TFS! and indeed two/three years ago when we did the first TESTIFY things we were farer from metal than we are now. But we learned to appreciate the more thicker and deeper sound that is to be found in metal and with no doubt this has something to do with changing attitudes as well as the influences of Moses, as well as with the influence of Adam Grossman
(Skrew) who helped us in realizing the MMMMYAOOOO album.

You put out a cool EP awhile back of various mixes of 'Ballroom Blitz' - whose idea was this?

It was Moses's idea to cover Ballroom Blitz who was a fan of this
title some centuries back. We thought the idea to be interesting even
a little bit funny and so it might be explained why the second version, the
'Machine Version' contains aspects of fun and not taking too serious,
where as the 2001 version is more to the original. Nobody wants to do a
cover version of 'Jumping Jack Flash' with me, so I'll be patient and
consider Ballroom Blitz a good first step into the art of covering.

Since you are perusing a more 'metal' direction nowadays, do you feel that you might lose some credibility with the Industrial set?

I don't see a danger of losing credibility with this MMMYAOOOO album. I don't see that more metal aspects should ruin anything we've done before; and I don't think that metal like TESTIFY is closer to giving up oneself than the perhaps
more alternative like early TESTIFY version of 93/94.

What was the inspiration for the new album and did you have a game plan?

There were rudimentary ideas of a general game plan; things I already mentioned: to make the sound thicker etc; to improve the drum works; to create mid tempo titles; but then on the other hand we let ideas flow and had no further ideological principals...

I sense a lot of anger in your music and lyrics - where does this come from?

Yeah, the anger question! Sometimes I ask myself if I already enjoy to be angry and dissatisfied and disgusted by this world which is sick and brutal and despicable in many aspects. The horror lies always in the detail. If you say ' This world is full of shit and frustrating, shocking phenomena', it has not got the same strength to make you angry than the details: there are eight year old children who suffer to get raped: there are soldiers from the former Yugoslavia who
took special delight slowing cutting off the hands of their prisoners;
there are people being held in pison cellars the size of a dog kennel.
That arouses certain emotions within that it makes me want to puke. Life
in general might have quite dark aspects.

Which bands influenced you or do you just plain enjoy?
You will not be surprised to learn that I appreciate NIN, Ministry, White Zombie etc...but there are other legendary phenomena's like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Sisters of Mercy,and sometimes I even enjoy listening to Byork or even Kim Wilde if you want to believe it.

Do politics get into the bands musical attitude?

Politics makes me puke once in a while.

Does TESTIFY have an ultimate plan?

The plan is to infest some millions with a virus with a black anger.

Where to you see the band going in say, the next six years?

We will dominate this world. In six years time we will slowly begin to enter the next stage which will be to dominate far off planets.

If you had only 24 hours until the end of the world, how would you spend it?

I would politely ask the owner of a pair of silky satin like legs to allow me to explore the regions between the parts of the body I mentioned for 23 hours. The very last hour should be reserved for a look back with melodramatic emotions